Overview

While exploring the Vale of Twilight, you found a submerged area of ruins underneath Meridia. Swim through and explore the cavern. Perhaps more clues about the missing Twelve members can be found within.

Reaching the Crimson Foot Hive automatically bestows quest.

Spoiler Warning: Information below this point can be considered spoiler material!

Known Traps

Spikes. Upon dropping down hole in the ground. Control panel is next to pillars.

Spikes. Before entering the first room after entering the hole. Panel behind pillar.

Spikes. In room next to Phaosth. Panel is in the main hall entryway by pillar.

Tips and Misc

To start this one off, be sure to have some method of water breathing (or be a Warforged). A short swim is required to get you down into the spider lair, but it can be a little difficult to navigate the submerged ruins. The easiest way to avoid wrong turns and getting turned about, is to keep going down, and corkscrew to the left when given the opportunity. This will lead you directly to the entrance of the spider tunnels.

There are no respawns in this quest. There are a limited amount of spawning ogres encountered during the "Protect the Crimson Foot Queen" objective.

Useful buffs:

Acid resist (for the spider attacks and for the rakshasas down the hole)

There are three upper walkways - west, southeast, and northeast - each of which has two of the six cave paths leading to it. The first journal appears down one of the caves, and the second journal will appear on one of the three upper walkways. It's fairly obvious which caves lead to which walkway.

The SW and NW caves lead to the west walkway. The shrine is located on the west walkway.

The S and SE caves lead to the southeast walkway. The SE cave is the cave through which you enter the quest.

The N and NE caves lead to the northeast walkway.

The objective "Don't kill more than 5 crimson foot" does not appear until you read the first journal. Simply bypass the first journal and you can kill any spiders you run across without risk of failing this objective. Clear the main areas then come back and read the first journal. In the boss room, have someone lure off the spiders while the rest kill the bosses in order to keep them safe. Killing any spiders will ruin your chances at a bonus chest, (the one you get for zero spider kills - spiders killed before reading the first journal also count).

It's possible, using a Monk's Abundant Step, a Favored Soul's Leap of Faith, or similar abilities (such as that found on the Cannith Boots of Propulsion) to reach the upper floors. Unannounced changes in the quest have increased "invisible" walls on some past locations (rubble, typically), leaving only torches and tiny ledges on pillars for classes with persistent long-jump ability to reach an upper location.

There are only 4 spiders in the final fight, so if you successfully get through the quest without killing any spiders, you can freely kill all the spiders in the final fight while completing the main objective (you will still lose the "no spiders killed at all" bonus chest).

Phaosth also drops a key which opens the door to the final boss. You can also lockpick this door, however it's pointless to do so as Slaying Phaosth is a required objective, the quest won't complete if you skipped him and lockpicked it instead.

If you want to try and keep all the spiders alive, you will need precise targeting. Fingers of Death, no area spells, no auto targeting, no armor guard effects, no two-handed weapons with glancing blows, etc.

Or, since the spiders are immune to acid damage, use acid area spells like Acid Blast or Acid Fog exclusively to simply and easily complete the quest.

Another good strategy is to get someone who can move quickly while stealthed to lure the spiders away from each fight before engaging the ogres. Spiders can see through stealth and they immediately aggro only on the sneaking character, while the ogres remain unaware, allowing for the rest of the party to sweep in and kill them.

Once all of the ogres in a section of the map are dead, the spiders in that area deactivate. They won't attack you and you can't harm them.

Spiders are immune to enchantment spells, so if you throw up an Otto's Sphere of Dancing, it will stop the rakshasa, but not the spiders. This can be useful if you need to lure the spiders away to use AOE effects on the rakshasa.

The safest/fastest strategy for the end fight if you have some casters in the party: Hit each of the four spiders with Flesh to Stone, and the rakshasa with Finger of Death/PK. Pull Thazgol far down the corridor away from the spiders in case they break. Now you can safely use strong AOE spells to slay him quickly.

"Let Sleeping Dust Lie" is a bit more obscure but most likely a reference to a track from Michael Schenker Group's 1981 album "MSG". The track is titled ""Let Sleeping Dogs Lie".

It is also a play on the Have you ever heard the expression "Let sleeping dogs lie"? Sometimes you're better off not knowing line used by Jack Nicholson's character in the 1974 movie Chinatown.

One of the mini bosses names is "Kkomglol", When you first hear the DM announce his name it doesn't sound unusual... But break it up and it reads: kk-omg-lol - common netspeak meaning "Okay oh my god I'm laughing out loud".

Loot

Chests: Two minimum, four possible

One guaranteed at "protect the named spider" shrine

One guaranteed at the end

One possible for 0 spider kills (disappears with a single spider kill at ANY point in the quest)

One possible for killing all the ogre magi. This chest appears even after quest is completed, so the easiest way to do this is to complete the necessary parts to end the quest, then run around and kill ogre magi (no need to worry about not killing spiders) until the chest pops.